Information about stocks is abundant, but so are the stocks. Finding a trade opportunity in the equities markets may mean sifting through data on thousands of stocks, while the forex trader has only six major currencies to research. Additionally, the vital information that moves equity markets, such as revenues and profits, is proprietary and private. In contrast, virtually all of the news that bears on the forex market is in publicly disseminated reports from governments or research institutions, and released to everybody at the same time.

We feel that the knowledge you've gained in analyzing stocks can easily be transferred to the forex market. Many of the economic indicators familiar to equity traders, such as payroll data and interest rates, affect the currency markets. And many technical traders have found the forex market to be particularly attractive, since currencies respond well to many of the common technical indicators, such as MACD, RSI, and Candlestick charting.

To learn more about transitioning from trading equity markets to trading in the Forex market, contact the FXCM staff today at 888-503-6739.

The forex market is a near-seamless 24-hour market. Subject to available liquidity, FXCM offers trading from Sunday, starting after 5:15 PM EST, until Friday, 4PM, EST (FXCM Client Service is available 24/7). With the ability to trade around the clock, currency traders have the advantage of customizing their own trading schedule; they can usually get in or out of the market at any time without waiting for an opening bell or encountering a market gap. While trading stocks after usual market hours is possible, very often that possibility is negated by a lack of order flow or a drastic widening of the bid-ask spread.

The extent to which you are using borrowed funds to gear your account. Increasing your leverage magnifies both gains and losses. To calculate leverage used, divide total open positions by account equity to get the leverage ratio. e.g. If a trader has $1,000 in his account and opens a $100,000 position, he is leveraging his account by 100 times, i.e. 100:1 leverage. If he opens a $200,000 position with $1,000 in his account, he is leveraging his account by 200 times, i.e. 200:1 leverage.

A trader must understand what each order is, what it and what part it plays in capturing profit.

A FOREX Trader must use three types of orders: a Market Order, a Limit Order, and a Stop Order.

The two primary orders used for entering and exciting the market are a Limit Orders, and a Stop Orders. Once an order is placed your order to enter the market, there are two critical procedures: One-Cancels-the-Other( OCO ) and Cancel-and-Replace. Properly exectuing orders and understanding these procedures are a vital step to profitables trading.

The technical trader is concerned with studying patterns of price movement on the chart in order to predict the direction of current and future trends in the Forex market. The decision to buy, sell, or hedge a current position – or to stay out of the market entirely – is made upon this analysis. Identify recurring patterns and make educated assessments to guide your decisions; should you initiate a trade at the current price, or set your system to open a position at a future price? The goal of the technical analyst is simple: to make profitable Forex trades by identifying past patterns that have historically led to a predictable outcome. However, the potential risk should always be considered. A recurring pattern is not precise and does not guarantee a desirable or expected price movement.

Using fundamental and technical analysis, the individual trader attempts to determine trends in the price movements of currencies, and by buying or selling currency pairs, attempts to gain profits. The most often traded currencies, the major currencies, are those of countries with stable governments and respected central banks that target low inflation. Currencies that often trade along with the U.S. Dollar include the European Euro, the Japanese Yen, and the British Pound as they are the most liquid. A trader can trade these currencies in any combination. CMS Forex also offers the Swiss Franc, and the Canadian, Australia and New Zealand Dollars making for 19 total trading instruments when accounting for all the cross pairs. More "Exotic" currencies are not offered as they are often tightly regulated and simply too illiquid

Seeing the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, visitors' first impressions are of the building's striking architecture. Inside the vault of this Renaissance-inspired structure is stored billions of dollars of gold. But what is most significant about the Bank is its broad policy responsibilities and the effects of its operations on the nation's economy.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York is one of 12 regional Reserve Banks which, together with the Board of Governors in Washington, D.C., make up the Federal Reserve System. The Fed, as the system is commonly called, is an independent governmental entity created by Congress in 1913 to serve as the central bank of the United States. It is responsible for

formulating and executing monetary policy,

supervising and regulating depository institutions,

providing an elastic currency,

assisting the federal government's financing operations, and

serving as the banker for the U.S. government.

In addition, the Federal Reserve System has important roles in operating the nation's payments systems, protecting consumers' rights in their dealings with banks and promoting community development and reinvestment.

The New York Fed oversees the Second Federal Reserve District, which includes New York state, the 12 northern counties of New Jersey, Fairfield County in Connecticut, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Though it serves a geographically small area compared with those of other Federal Reserve Banks, the New York Fed is the largest Reserve Bank in terms of assets and volume of activity.

The New York Fed employs about 2,700 officers and staff at the head office and the regional office in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

In addition to responsibilities the New York Fed shares in common with the other Reserve Banks, the New York Fed has several unique responsibilities, including conducting open market operations, intervening in foreign exchange markets, and storing monetary gold for foreign central banks, governments and international agencies. Foremost among its functions is the implementation of monetary policy, one of the three missions of the New York Fed. The other two are supervision and regulation, and international operations

Most traders focus on the biggest, most liquid currency pairs, known as "The Majors". These include US Dollar, Japanese Yen, Euro, British Pound, Swiss Franc, Canadian Dollar and Australian Dollar. In fact, more than 85% of daily forex trading happens in the major currency pairs.

"Forex" stands for foreign exchange; it's also known as FX. In a forex trade, you buy one currency while simultaneously selling another.

Currencies trade in pairs, like the Euro-US Dollar (EUR/USD) or US Dollar / Japanese Yen (USD/JPY).

Forex trading is used to speculate on the relative strength of one currency against another. The foreign exchange market is an over-the-counter market, which means that it is a decentralised market with no central exchange.Play this video to learn more